Chapter 68
“Too bad.”
I tried casting magic with the corpse's body, but failed.
I couldn't feel the Circle itself.
I thought it might work since this corpse had been a mage.
The Circle seemed to have evaporated when it died.
Had it gone to the Black Sea, where the black magic gallery regulars said they went to obtain Circles?
“I should try moving the body again…”
Next, I tried moving it.
“This is a little difficult.”
Controlling each part individually was difficult.
Perhaps it was because the fingers had been sewn together, so the body was still connected.
‘Then should I try separating them a little?’
Shhk-!
First, I used the scythe to separate the fingers that had been sewn together.
Even after that, each separate consciousness remained intact.
Then I stepped backward.
The corpse moved backward just like I did.
One step. Two steps. Three steps…
After moving about ten meters away like that.
Tuk.
The corpse crumpled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
At the same time, one of the fields of vision filling my mind went dark as if it had been switched off.
‘Ah…’
‘Ah...’
Once again, there were two consciousnesses in this body.
“I know how to train now.”
First, I opened the Gallery and reported that I had succeeded with Necro Sync.
Then comments appeared.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : If you've already learned Multi-Action, this one really is easy to clear in one try.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(432F): ? Newbie never even bragged about it being easy, so what the hell is this all of a sudden?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : Victim complex, fuck lololololol
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : Excellent! You should practice maintaining the connection even as you gradually increase the distance. ^^
The necromancer mentor explained it that way.
Just as I had expected.
But there was something I was curious about.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(121F) : But wouldn't practicing on the same floor have its limits? No matter how far I get from this corpse, the maximum distance would be from one end of the floor to the other, while the Blood Knight is twenty-one floors below me.
An answer soon came back.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : Oh my ^^ That's right! So even after succeeding at the maximum distance, you should keep practicing by gradually reducing the mana used for the sync!
‘Is that how you make it difficult…’
That was when the necromancer from Floor 702 raised a question.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : But Teacher, will Necro Sync still be maintained when Newbie climbs to higher floors?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(349F) : S i n c e y o u a s k e d, y o u ' l l g e t a n a n s w e r.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : How does someone in the 700s not know that? Can't you do Necro Sync or whatever?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : I know how to do it... But I don't need to place a watcher on a lower floor, so I haven't tried long-distance Necro Connecting.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : Ah, right.
Afterward, the necromancer from Floor 702 said this to me.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Newbie. I haven't tried going beyond 300 meters because I never needed to, but speaking from experience, once you get past the first five meters, it's actually easier to get the hang of it.
“...”
I scratched between my brows and typed on the keyboard.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(121F)(Author) : I've already moved more than five meters away, though?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : ?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : 702F, don't explain things by normie standards lolololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : ;;; Then how many meters did you manage?
702F asked urgently, and I answered.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(121F) : About five marble tiles, so around ten meters?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : ;;; I was only around two meters on my first try…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(461F) : At least a fivefold talent gap, holy shit lol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(543F) : Not even fivefold. They must have started in the 600s lolololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : Right, fuck lol. How many times greater is their Intelligence stat multiplier, then? lololololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Ah, this existential crisis is brutal…
After that, the necromancy mentor continued commenting, seemingly impressed.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : Ten meters… You did that right away?
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : That really is incredible… Normally, on their first attempt at Necro Sync, people can only use it within one meter—in other words, right beside the corpse.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : That's why I was praised for managing two meters…
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : If I had told my fellow necromancers about this before entering the Tower, they would have fainted. ^^;
“Hmm…”
I was being praised for my talent, but I felt completely at a loss.
After all, I had hit my limit at ten meters.
How long would it take to use Necro Sync with the Blood Knight, which was twenty-one floors away, in my current state?
It seemed impossibly far away.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : The orthodox method is to maintain Necro Connecting every day while gradually increasing the distance.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : But there is a shortcut! ^^
‘A shortcut?’
The explanation continued.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : You can use teleportation. Briefly fool Necro Connecting's range check with teleportation, then learn the sensation at the instant the connection breaks. That way, you'll be able to increase the distance much faster.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : Short-range teleportation is a 5th-Circle spell, but don't you have a special item, Newbie?
She meant the Ribbon's active skill, Black Shift.
‘Can it be used that way…?’
Teleportation had been useful in many ways, just as it had been when I learned scythe techniques.
I left a comment saying I understood, then closed the Gallery.
To begin training, I had to send one of my consciousnesses into the corpse again.
But I didn't need to sew the hands back together.
- From the second time onward, mucosal contact should work too. ^^
…Mucosal contact. That was definitely what the mentor had said.
I looked down at the corpse's pale, stiff face.
‘It can't be helped…’
To survive and become stronger, there was nothing I wouldn't do.
I drew a deep breath and bent at the waist.
Then I pressed my lips against the corpse's lips.
Naturally, I used the lips on the head side of the conjoined body.
The lips were pale and bloodless, but they weren't stiff.
Contact with the oral mucosa.
Hwaaaaaak-!!!
Once again, I felt my consciousness being forcibly sucked in, and two fields of vision opened.
Connection successful.
That was how I managed to get the corpse moving again.
‘This isn't exactly Sleeping Beauty…’
In this case, I was both the prince and the princess.
Tap. Tap.
I put those thoughts aside and increased the distance.
Just before reaching the ten-meter boundary marked by the marble tiles.
“Black Shift.”
Woooong-!
Black mist rose, and my body teleported five meters backward.
Snap.
At the same time as the teleportation, the taut thread of consciousness snapped, and the corpse crumpled to the floor.
'I only needed to hold out a little longer…'
I remembered that precarious sensation of trying to hold on somehow just before the connection broke, then approached the corpse again.
Holding on to that fleeting feel, I approached the corpse again.
Mwah.
I kissed it again.
I connected our consciousnesses, increased the distance again, and used Black Shift.
Snap.
Mwah.
Woooong-!
Snap.
Mwah.
Each time I teleported, the connection collapsed, but whenever I grasped the sensation of the connection about to break at the increased distance and tried again, the distance grew noticeably.
The necromancer regular had been right.
Fifteen meters. Twenty meters. Thirty meters.
It increased rapidly, one step at a time.
But there was one troublesome aspect.
Every time the power went out like this.
Smooch.
I had to press my lips to the corpse's again, touch the mucosa, and transfer my consciousness over.
More than anything, waiting for Black Shift's 30-second cooldown was boring and took too long.
‘Can't I do this faster?’
I opened the Gallery during the wait and looked for Seol Harin.
ㅇㅇ(121F)(Author) : Harin, can you tell me the magic circle and incantation for short-range teleportation?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : I told you, it's 5th-Circle.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : Are you going to get a Circle?
I answered.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(121F)(Author) : I'm only 4th-Circle right now, but I'm going to try it with Circle Uplift, so tell me.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(429F) : Can you really pull that off again?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(354F) : No, it just seems like Newbie assumes it'll definitely work lololololololololololololol
ㄴ Seol Harin : …All right. Wait a moment.
The gallery regulars argued back and forth, but Seol Harin immediately accepted my request.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(577F) : Is this really the right time to try Circle Uplift? ;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(121F)(Author) : I have to wait thirty seconds for teleportation anyway.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : They're trying to train down to the second lololololololololololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : This maximum-efficiency freak is insane.
“Another thirty seconds have passed.”
I kissed the corpse again, then used Black Shift to increase the distance.
Snap. The connection broke.
I kissed it again to restore the connection, then checked the Gallery.
A new post from Seol Harin had appeared.
[Title: 5th-Circle Short-Range Teleportation, ‘Blink.’]
My brow furrowed as soon as I clicked the post.
“What is this...?”
The magic circle was huge and complex beyond comparison with a 4th-Circle spell.
The incantation was also long enough to tie my tongue in knots.
Moreover, after reading the description, I estimated that with my current Intelligence and Magic stats, the cooldown for using it safely without exhaustion was about one minute.
Its range was three times shorter than Black Shift's, making it a terribly inefficient spell in many ways for combat.
At my current casting speed, I might as well walk.
But if I learned it, I would gain another teleportation skill that operated separately from Black Shift, allowing me to increase the pace of my training.
“Let's try it.”
It was time to attempt Circle Uplift, forcibly drawing on the nonexistent next Circle.
I already knew how.
I completely stopped the rotations of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Circles.
Then I accelerated only the outermost 4th Circle like mad.
Woooooong-!!!
Pressure like my core was about to explode surged through me.
The Circles began to fall out of alignment.
‘Was this sensation Circle Uplift…?’
The 4th Circle expanded beyond its limit.
It seemed to be temporarily imitating the realm of the 5th Circle.
Maintaining that unstable state, I placed the scythe against the floor and quickly and accurately drew Blink's magic circle.
Bzzzt-!
The magic circle was complete, but since Blink was a 5th-Circle spell, the circle alone did not activate it.
I recited the long, complicated incantation.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆... Blink!”
Fwoooooosh-!
The instant the magic circle and incantation meshed, my vision flickered and my body was sucked into thin air.
“Gasp...!”
My body was flung three meters backward.
It worked.
Snap.
The connection to the corpse broke.
Panting, I approached the corpse and kissed it again.
Smooch.
I now had Black Shift, with its 30-second cooldown, and Blink, with its one-minute cooldown.
Alternating between the two teleportation skills made my training considerably faster.
Mwah. Black Shift. Snap.
Mwah. Blink. Snap.
How many times did I repeat that?
At last, even with us standing at opposite ends of the enormous chamber on the 121st floor, Necro Sync did not break.
I was sharing the vision of the chimera corpse hundreds of meters away.
“Good. The distance is enough.”
Now for the final stage.
The Blood Knight was twenty floors below me. Therefore, I had to maintain the connection with fainter mana than I had used for this distance.
I began gradually slowing the rotation of the Circles.
Snap.
It stopped again.
After quickly crossing the chamber and reconnecting,
I used the technique of stopping the Circles that I had used before to reduce the mana output.
4th Circle stopped.
3rd Circle stopped.
2nd Circle stopped.
I rotated only a single 1st Circle as faintly as a mosquito's breath, maintaining the connection to the corpse with the dimmed thread of mana.
How many attempts and how much time passed?
“Done.”
Even while rotating a single 1st Circle as faintly as a mosquito's breath, I succeeded in maintaining Necro Sync.
I let out a long breath.
“Now it's time to wake the Blood Knight.”
I severed the connection with the corpse.
Then, with my eyes closed, I extended my consciousness toward the Blood Knight, who would be standing alone on the 100th floor.
Not that it would be possible anyway, but I didn't need to sew my body to the Blood Knight's.
The Blood Knight had been practically a part of my body since the moment it was created.
Twenty-one floors below.
The red-armored knight standing there.
I focused on the blood essence flowing through the Blood Knight's body.
That blood, which had passed through my abdomen and been painstakingly imprinted with my mana.
‘Find it.’
I sent a pulse of mana downward, farther and farther down.
That was when it happened.
‘…!’
I caught it.
It was extremely faint, but unmistakably there.
I sensed a trace of my mana.
The flow of blood through the Blood Knight standing alone on the 100th floor was drawn in my mind.
I focused my entire consciousness on the sensation from when I had used Blood Restoration to repair the Blood Knight's body and fuse the greatsword.
I pushed the faint thread of mana into the Blood Knight's consciousness.
Flash-!
My eyes flew open.
“Done!”
I had succeeded in synchronizing with all of the Blood Knight's senses.
At that moment.
A wave of profound unfamiliarity washed over me.
“Wow… So this is how the Blood Knight has been perceiving the world…”
There was a slight problem.
But that was only natural.